MPs given free vote on future of mink hunting

By Charles Clover, Environment Editor

12:00AM GMT 16 Feb 2001

MINK hunting with dogs would remain legal under an amendment to the Hunting Bill proposed by Jack Straw yesterday.

MPs will be given a free vote in the concession by the Home Secretary, following complaints from Lin Golding, the Labour MP, in the committee stage of the Bill. She said that the banning of mink hounds would encourage mink to reproduce and kill many indigenous species.

The Bill proposes banning the hunting of foxes, hares and deer and the amendment raises the possibility that hunts could switch to the American mink, which has been implicated in the steep decline of the water vole. The existing 20 packs of mink hounds in England and Wales kill an estimated 400 to 1,400 mink a year.

Mr Straw also published an expected amendment that would allow dogs to be used to flush deer out of cover to be shot. Pro-hunting bodies, however, found that it made no attempt to distinguish between "flushing to be shot" and the present practice of hunting in which deer are flushed, chased, and cornered by hounds before being shot.

Mr Straw also published concessions removing the ban on hunting rats and rabbits, which MPs had claimed would make the use of terriers underground illegal. A more widespread criticism has been that anyone allowing their dog to chase rabbits could risk fines of up to £5,000.

Owners of dogs which chase hares will still face that risk and the burden of proof will be on the owner to prove that it was chasing a hare and not a rabbit. The amendments will be voted on when the Bill has its report stage. Simon Hart, of the Countryside Alliance, said: "It is becoming more obvious, hour by hour, that this Bill has more to do with curtailing human behaviour than it does with animal welfare."

Hunt saboteurs who attack hunt supporters have received a warning from the House of Lords that their chances of claiming damages if they are injured in such attacks are slim. The Law Lords backed a Court of Appeal ruling that a saboteur who suffered brain damage and epilepsy after a hunt supporter he attacked with a baseball bat retaliated was not entitled to compensation.

Harry Cross, 47, was awarded £52,000 by the High Court. However, the Appeal Court ruled that he was entitled to nothing as his injuries stemmed from his illegal action. That decision was upheld by Lords Bingham, Clyde and Hobhouse, who gave no reasons for their decision. Cross, of Wissett, Suffolk, was refused leave to appeal.